it's an important neighborhood for the city. it would be great for the city. >> reporter: it would also be good politics. you see, the subway was going to stop here in chinatown. but to get all the equipment in and out to build it, they would have to keep boring on down the street to north beach and pull all the machinery out by digging a big pitch here at this intersection. >> it's going to disrupt the whole neighborhood and damage business. >> reporter: so the feeling was, chinatown gets the subway station and north beach gets the shaft. >> i've heard that phrase. now, i think they raised a very legitimate point. records and those concerns including threatened lawsuits and a lot of heat aimed at city hall. but by giving north beach a pete's of the subway deal, folks are at least taking a second look at the idea. >> they are proposing 1500 people per hour to be dropped off into the neighborhood. why wouldn't it make sense? >> it depends how they put it together. >> reporter: deals like this don't come cheap. a north beach stop